Soulflower

D’angelo, Questlove, Mary J. Blige & More Confirmed To Be On Michael Jackson’s Posthumous ‘XSCAPE’ LP


Michael Jackson's 'XSCAPE' LP To Feature D'angelo, Questlove And More Okayplayer
Michael Jackson‘s recently announced posthumous XSCAPE LP is getting a few more stars to fill out the roster, with Jesse Johnson confirming D’angelo, our faithful leader Questlove, Mary J Blige, D’s right-hand bass-man Pino Palladino, Eric Leeds and his own involvement on a yet to be revealed track off what is already shaping up to be an astral release. You read that correctly. The neo-soul army is strapped and tapped for an album that will be sure to quench your thirst for the funk.
The track has only been referred to as ”H** ** *** *********e” by the former axeman for The Time, but we’ve got our suspicions as to whats under their sleeves. With the treasure trove of unreleased material that was found following the legends untimely death and his purchase of some hig...catalogues, we’ve got our suspicions as to what will surface, but until then, let the guessing game begin! Keep it locked for more on this titanic collaboration and whet your pallet with D’angelo, Chuck D and Isaac Hayes‘ rework of Sly’s “Sing A Simple Song” and be sure to peep D’s ill cover of Al Green‘s “I’m So Glad You’re Mine” from his recently released reissue of Live At The Jazz Cafe. Michael Jackson’s XSCAPE is due out May 13th, but you can pre-order via iTunes today. Hop on it.
In other news D'Angelo's long awaited album reportedly has contributions from MJ, Whitney, Amy Winehouse, Lisa 'Left Eye Lopez', and Gil Scott Heron.

Soulflower

New Xscape Art Work



New teaser too.

Michael Jackson Xscape from Chris Carboni on Vimeo

via. http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/th...3-2014/page386

Cuthbert

Artwork is nice.

Frownland

I feel ya man.

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

SoloSong

In Budapest they have a Michael Jackson monument - his pics pinned to a ... tree. Cannot upload a photo strange, but touching

Soulflower

There was a listening party in Toronto, Canada:



Lance Chung ‏@MrLanceChung

Just finished at the #MichaelJackson #Xscape VIP listening session. Tons of summer anthems on the way!

Soulflower

“Love Never Felt So Good” set to be the first single released from the new Michael Jackson album? » DamienShields.com

“Love Never Felt So Good” – one of eight unreleased tracks on the upcoming Michael Jackson album, ‘XSCAPE’ – will seemingly serve as the project’s lead single.

Speculation regarding the lead single has been fever-pitched in the Jackson fan community since the day ‘XSCAPE’ was announced, with at least five of the album’s tracks being touted as potential singles among a range of parties close to the album. However, it now seems that the debate may be over, and that “Love Never Felt So Good” will be the first cab off the rank.

“Love Never Felt So Good” – a track Jackson co-wrote and recorded with Paul Anka during the early 80s – has not always been the front-runner for the role of lead single. Far from it, in fact! Back in August 2013, super-producer Timbaland revealed that he was working on a brand new Michael Jackson album. During an interview with Revolt TV, in which he discussed how L.A. Reid had invited him to come on board the project, the producer said: “I can tell you the first single is gonna be the song ‘Chicago’… I think it should be, because ‘Chicago’ sounds like today.”

For those not familiar with the situation: “Chicago” is actually a song that was originally called “She Was Lovin Me” – as written by Cory Rooney. Michael Jackson recorded the Rooney-written track in 1999 at the Hit Factory in New York City during the early ‘Invincible’ sessions. Fans only discovered that “Chicago” and “She Was Lovin Me” are one and the same a week ago. Read about that here.

For a six-month period following Timbaland’s initial revelations, information regarding the new album was hard to come by. So when Sony Mobile and The Estate of Michael Jackson announced, in late-February 2014, that the King of Pop’s unreleased track “Slave To The Rhythm” would serve as the commercial theme for Sony’s new Xperia Z2 mobile phone, talk of the new album sparked back up. The theory that “Slave To The Rhythm” would not only be the Xperia theme, but Jackson’s new single too, quickly became popular belief, with speculation that footage from the commercials (see below) would double as the short film to the track.

However, as time following the Xperia announcement passed, and days turned into weeks, the probability that “Slave To The Rhythm” would be the lead single began to diminish.

The day the ‘XSCAPE’ album was announced, a 15-second teaser was released to the public featuring the brand new remix of the song “Xscape” – produced by Rodney Jerkins. Attention quickly turned to “Xscape” as the potential lead single when the track’s co-writer, LaShawn Daniels, uploaded a snippet of the track to his Instagram account, stating: “This song serves as the album title as well as first single; XSCAPE.”

When radio broadcasters, journalists and music critics finally heard the album during private listening sessions last week, the song “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” was frequently cited as being an album standout and possible hit.

But, as stated at the beginning of this article, it was “Love Never Felt So Good” that seems to have got the winning vote.

As far as Epic Records and The Estate of Michael Jackson are concerned, the lead single is possibly the most crucial decision to be made in this entire campaign. Picking a track that gels well with radio audiences around the world is essential. If the track does not take off in the world of radio, the single will not succeed as charts are impacted by airplay. And if the lead single does not succeed, radio stations are not likely to accept a second, third and forth single – which is currently part of the plan.

Fans who have not yet heard the new version of “Love Never Felt So Good” have questioned the concept of using it as the lead single based on how the demo sounds. But those who have heard the new version insist the track is a worthy, radio-friendly single with major hit potential.

“Love Never Felt So Good” was touted by reporter Kevin Hughes as: “An amazing 1983 disco groove,” with “a soulful vocal, infectious baseline and orchestral strings,” in his review for The Mirror. The track – which has been likened to 2013 Daft Punk mega-hit “Get Lucky” and Jackson’s own 1979 classic “Rock With You” – would apparently not sound out of place on a Pharrell album. A French review hyped “Love Never Felt So Good” as: “A power track completely calibrated for your summer,” adding that the track was: “Big disco funk,” with a galactic groove spirit. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy says that the track comes complete with: “1980s disco beats and crisp finger clicks,” adding that “the groove of the track is soaked in nostalgia.”

The finger snaps are all present on the original demo of the track, but a 1980s disco beat is not. Neither is an infectious bassline or orchestral strings. In fact, the demo – which will appear in the Deluxe Edition of ‘XSCAPE’ – has only one instrument; a piano. It will certainly be fascinating to hear this track loaded with new sounds designed to create a fresh, danceable vibe.

“Love Never Felt So Good” should serve as an easy track for the general public to swallow and digest. The harsh reality of mainstream radio these days is that the majority of the music you hear on it is dumbed down and targeted at lazy listeners who aren’t interested in anything other than a simple, fluffy throw-away chorus to sing along to on their way to work – as opposed to the complex and intellectual songwriting that exists on the majority of the tracks on ‘XSCAPE’. If “Love Never Felt So Good” can get its foot in the radio door to great effect, subsequent singles should be a less daunting prospect for both the radio station and record label.

As well as track selection, timing is very important. Right now ‘XSCAPE’ is just over a month from worldwide released. Dropping a single now could be a great thing for the album if the single continued to progress up the charts week-by-week. However if the single was to peak early, in the first week or two, and fade away, the results come album release day could be disastrous.

In this case, from what I’ve been able to gather, it seems that Epic Records are planning to launch their radio campaign fairly close to the release of the album. I personally think this would be a good move on their part.

Skip Dillard, a New York-based radio broadcaster who attended to Epic Records listening session at Top of the Rock on April 8, told me that the plan is for the single to hit radio in early May. Assuming the track launches on a Tuesday, that would be May 6. That would give the track one week of solid airplay before the album, and accompanying short film, is released on May 13.

Remember, the Deluxe Edition of the ‘XSCAPE’ album comes bundled with two videos. According to a contact of mine who works in the film industry in Los Angeles; one of those videos is set to be the short film for the lead single, and the other a “making of” documentary about the album. A worldwide, big-budget, multi-faceted marketing campaign will accompany the release of the album.

As for the documentary, this could be the opportunity Rodney Jerkins has been waiting years for, providing the perfect platform to release some of never-before seen footage he captured of Michael Jackson recording the ‘Invincible’ album. “I’ll just say Michael asked me to document everything; and I did,” revealed Jerkins in an interview shortly after Michael’s passing. “And I’m sure one day it’ll see the light of day. I got to make sure it’s made in the way Michael would want to see it.”

Soulflower

From TIME magazine (thanks to MJJC)


Rock With Michael Jackson (Again)

Katherine St. Asaph @Katstasaph 6:21 AM ET

The King of Pop gets a new sound:

Old musicians don’t die or fade away–they just become franchises. Xscape, out May 13, is the latest in the biggest franchise of all: posthumous Michael Jackson albums. Epic Records mogul L.A. Reid worked with Timbaland to curate eight new tracks from Jackson’s vault of unreleased sessions, “contemporizing ” the songs, which were recorded from 1983 to 1999.

To their credit, contemporized doesn’t mean gimmicky; even paint-by-numbers producer team Stargate went subtle, although it helps that Jackson’s voice is too singularly frenzied to be overshadowed by a mix. Consider “Love Never Felt So Good,” an opulent, warm disco-soul number, which evokes Off the Wall as much as dead-on 2014, because these days disco is so trendy it practically comes precontemporized.

The Sane Psycho

Of course he's one of the best. While we'll never truly know what happened and if any of the allegations were true, but what we do know is that his music is amazing.

Soulflower

Brazil had a listening party today and some fans were invited:

| HEARING the ALBUM #XSCAPE in BRAZIL-PART 1/2 |



he mjBeats was there!

Yesterday (day 28) was a rush for administrators of mjBeats! Just like in other countries, the Brazilian #XSCAPE album hearing was marked by surprise ... and for the next day!

The event happened today in São Paulo, at the Museum of image and Sound in São Paulo (MIS) at 12:40-there was a delay of 40 min-, with the presence of international marketing representative from Sony, the Vice President of Sony Music II, the President of Sony Music Brazil (Alexandre Schiavo), as well as journalists of the leading Brazilian media vehicles, such as Globe, UOL, Terra, sheet and associated press. We, the Beats, we had two representatives there.

The security procedure is very strong! All phones, smartphones, electronics etc. were retained in the entry, all to avoid any possibility of leak of the album (note that there are only 2 weeks for the release and didn't leak anything till now! o/).

To give an idea, not even the President of Sony Music Brazil had access to the album. He came in a pre-recorded XPERIA Z2 in the hands of the Vice President of Sony Music worldwide.

The presentation of the album happened associated to the smartphone XPERIA Z2, Sony Mobile. And, at any given time, the company representative spoke about the advantages of this launch, in the sense of having attached all sectors of Sony (Pictures, Music, Mobile, etc.) to the disclosure of the record.

It was revealed that the XPERIA Z2 will come with "Slave To The Rhythm" pre-recorded (but the rest of the album need to be downloaded by an application, for free). Also confirmed that the release of the album in Brazil will be on May 13 (physical and digital editions).

The album was presented on standard Edition (i.e. 8 songs) and just start "Love Never Felt So Good" that the excitement was left clear on the faces of everyone present. Many even risked a few steps on different tracks, highlighting that the 8 tracks unanimously pleased.

The songs ... hmm, WE LOVE! We are sure that the other Brazilian fans will be so excited about! The feeling of nostalgia that this album features from the first chord of "Love Never Felt So Good" and lasts until the last second of the "Xscape"-and, in the end, what persists is the overwhelming need for more and more of that voice that we love so much.

"Xscape" does not seem a common album, is as a collection of hits! All songs are real bombs, restless and ideal for the dance floor. The 8 (Yes, all!) are potential hits.

Everything seems to have been planned by millimeters to please the fans. The dedication of LA Reid (Executive producer) and the other involved is such that makes us feel the presence of Michael. Its essence is there, like the albums released during his lifetime.

It shows the attention that was given to the vocals, especially by several moments when the songs are a cappella or with just the featured voice.

In short, our ' #XSCAPE ' experience could be summed up in one word: Catharsis. Listen to "Xscape" is to undergo eight times to a boom of emotions and, although such beauties remind us how much MJ do, the feelings of pride and joy go far beyond! Michael continues to live in each of us and the ' new music ' just reaffirm that certainty.

P.S.: we would like to include here our sincere thanks to Rose Silva for helping in getting the invitations for the audition! You're awesome! ❤ _ We're already making the part 2 of the review, with the music in music analysis. For that, we are crossing the impressions of our representatives about each one of them.

https://www.facebook.com/mjbeats